Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company, taken over by a number of chemical companies, including Huntsman Corporation, a United States-based company, and AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, two of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British economy".^[1] It produced paints and speciality products (including ingredients for foods, specialty polymers, electronic materials, fragrances and flavours). It employed around 29,000 people and had a turnover of just over £4.8 billion in 2006. The company was independent from 1926 to 2008, headquartered for most of that time in Millbank, London, and was a constituent of the FT30 Index and FTSE 100 Index. After the January 2008 change of ownership, AkzoNobel fully integrated ICI's operations within its existing organisation.^[2][3][4]

History[link]

Development of the business[link]

The company was founded in December 1926 from the merger of four companies: Brunner Mond, Nobel Explosives, the United Alkali Company, and British Dyestuffs Corporation.^[5] It established its head office at Millbank in London in 1928.^[5]

Competing with DuPont and IG Farben, the new company produced chemicals, explosives, fertilisers, insecticides, dyestuffs, non-ferrous metals, and paints.^[5] In its first year turnover was £27 million.^[5]

In the 1920s and '30s the company played a key role in the development of new chemical products, including the dyestuff phthalocyanine (1929), the acrylic plastic Perspex (1932),^[5] Dulux paints (1932, co-developed with DuPont),^[5] polyethylene (1937)^[5] and polyethylene terephthalate fibre known as Terylene (1941).^[5]

ICI also owned the Sunbeam motorcycle business, which had come with Nobel Industries, and continued to build motorcycles until 1937.^[6]

In the 1940s and '50s the company established its pharmaceutical business and developed a number of key products including Paludrine (1940s, an anti-malarial drug),^[5] halothane (1951, an anaesthetic agent), Inderal (1965, a beta-blocker),^[5] Tamoxifen (1978, a frequently used drug for breast cancer),^[7] and PEEK (1979, a high performance thermoplastic).^[5] ICI formed ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1957.

ICI developed a fabric in the 1950s known as Crimplene. Crimplene is a thick polyester yarn used to make a fabric of the same name. The resulting cloth is heavy, wrinkle-resistant and retains its shape well. The California-based fashion designer Edith Flagg was the first to import this fabric from Britain to the USA. During the first two years, ICI gave Flagg a large advertising budget to popularise the fabric across America.

Early pesticide development included Gramoxone (1962, a herbicide),^[5] the insecticides pirimiphos-methyl in 1967 and pirimicarb in 1970, brodifacoum (a rodenticide) was developed in 1974; in the late 1970s, ICI was involved in the early development of synthetic pyrethroid insecticides such as lambda-cyhalothrin.

ICI was confronted with the nationalisation of its operations in Burma on 1 August 1962 as a consequence of the military coup.^[8] The company acquired Atlas Chemical Industries Inc., a major US competitor, in 1971.^[5]

During the 1980s (from 1982 to 1987,) the company was led by the charismatic John Harvey Jones.^[9] Under his leadership the company acquired the Beatrice Chemical Division in 1985 and Glidden Coatings & Resins, a leading paints business in 1986.^[10]

From 1991 to 2007: reorganisation of the business[link]

In 1991 ICI sold the agricultural and merchandising operations of BritAg and Scottish Agricultural Industries to Norsk Hydro.^[11]

In 1991, the company successfully fought off a hostile takeover bid from the Hanson plc conglomerate.^[12] It also divested its soda ash products arm to Brunner Mond. This ended an association with the trade which had existed from the company's inception, having inherited this area of business from the original Brunner, Mond & Co. Ltd).

In 1993 the company demerged its pharmaceutical bioscience businesses: pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, specialities, seeds and biological products were all transferred into a new and independent company called Zeneca Group (which subsequently merged with Astra AB to form AstraZeneca PLC).^[13]

In 1994 Charles Miller Smith was appointed Chief Executive Officer. This was one of the few times that someone from outside ICI had been appointed to lead the company, Smith having previously been a director at Unilever. Shortly afterwards the company acquired a number of former Unilever businesses, in an attempt to move away from the company's historical reliance on commodity chemicals.

In 1997 ICI acquired National Starch & Chemical, Quest, Unichema, and Crosfield, the specialty chemicals businesses of Unilever for $8bn.^[14] This step was part of a strategy to move away from cyclical bulk chemicals and to progress up the value chain in order to become a higher growth, higher margin business.^[5] Later that year it went on to buy Rutz & Huber, a Swiss paints business.^[15]

Having taken on some £4 billion of debt to finance these acquisitions, the company had to sell off its commodity chemicals businesses.

• Disposals of bulk chemicals businesses at that time included the sale of its Australian subsidiary, ICI Australia, for £1bn in 1997,^[16] and of its polyester chemicals business to DuPont for $3 billion also in 1997.^[17]
• The following year it bought Acheson, an electronic chemicals business.^[18]
• In 2000 ICI sold its diisocyanate, advanced materials, and specialty chemicals businesses at Teesside and worldwide (including plants at Rosenberg, Holland, in South Africa, Malaysia, and Taiwan), and Tioxide, its titanium dioxide subsidiary, to Huntsman Corporation for £1.7 billion.^[19] It also sold the last of its industrial chemicals businesses to Ineos for £0.3 billion.^[20]
• In 2006 the Company sold Quest International, its flavours and Fragrances business, to Givaudan, for £1.2 billion^[21] and Uniqema, its textile auxiliaries business, to Croda International, for £410 million.^[22]

Having sold off much of its historically profitable commodities businesses, and many of the new speciality businesses, which it had failed to integrate, the company consisted mainly of the Dulux paints business, which quickly found itself the subject of a takeover by Akzo Nobel.

2007: takeover by Akzo Nobel[link]

A former ICI plant in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, now owned by Syngenta.

Dutch firm Akzo Nobel (owner of Crown Berger paints) bid £7.2 billion (€10.66 billion or $14.5 billion US) for ICI in June 2007. An area of concern about a potential deal was ICI's British pension fund, which had future liabilities of more than £9 billion at the time.^[23] Regulatory issues in the UK and other markets where Dulux and Crown Paints brands each have significant market share were also a cause for concern for the boards of ICI and Akzo Nobel. In the UK, any combined operation without divestments would have seen Akzo Nobel have a 54% market share in the paint market.^[24] The initial bid was rejected by the ICI board and the majority of shareholders.^[25] However, a subsequent bid for £8 billion (€11.82 billion) was accepted by ICI in August 2007, pending approval by regulators.^[26]

At 8.00am on 2 January 2008 completion of the takeover of ICI plc by Akzo Nobel NV was announced.^[2] Shareholders of ICI received either £6.70 in cash or Akzo Nobel loan notes to the value of £6.70 per 1 nominal ICI share. The adhesives business of ICI was transferred to Henkel as a result of the deal,^[27] while Akzo agreed to sell its Crown Paints subsidiary to satisfy the concerns of the European Commissioner for Competition.^[28]

The areas of concern regarding the ICI UK pension scheme were addressed by ICI and Akzo.^[29]

Operations[link]

ICI operated a number of chemical sites around the world. In the UK the main plants were as follows:

• Billingham (in Stockton-on-Tees) and Wilton (in present day Redcar and Cleveland): ICI used the site to manufacture fertilisers in the 1920s and went on to produce plastics at Billingham in 1934. During World War II it manufactured Synthonia, a synthetic ammonia for explosives.^[30] The ICI Billingham Division was split into the ICI Heavy Organic Chemicals Division and ICI Agricultural Division in the 1960s. From 1971 to 1988 ICI Physics and Radioisotopes Section (later known as Tracerco) operated a small General Atomics TRIGA Mark I nuclear reactor at its Billingham factory for the production of radioisotopes used in the manufacture of flow and level instruments, among other products.^[31]

• Blackley (in Manchester): ICI used the site to manufacture dyestuffs. The dye business, known as the ICI Dyestuffs Division in the 1960s, went through several reorganizations. Through the years it was combined with other specialty chemicals businesses and became ICI Colours and Fine Chemicals and then ICI Specialties.^[32]

• Runcorn (in Cheshire): ICI used the site to manufacture chlorine and caustic soda.^[33] For many years it was known as ICI Mond Division but later became part of the ICI Chemicals and Polymers Division. The Runcorn site was also responsible for the development of the HiGEE and Spinning Disc Reactor concepts. These were originated by Professor Colin Ramshaw and led to the concept of Process Intensification: research into these novel technologies is now being pursued by the Process Intensification Group at Newcastle University.^[34]

• Winnington and Wallerscote (in Northwich, Cheshire): It was here that ICI manufactured sodium carbonate (soda ash) and its various by-products such as bicarbonate of soda, and sodium sesquicarbonate. The Winnington site, built in 1873 by the entrepreneurs John Tomlinson Brunner and Ludwig Mond, was also the base for the former the company Brunner, Mond & Co. Ltd. and, after the merger which created ICI, the powerful and influential Alkali Division. It was at the laboratories on this site that polythene was discovered by accident in 1933 during experiments into high pressure reactions.^[35] Wallerscote was built in 1926, its construction delayed by the First World War, and became one of the largest factories devoted to a single product (soda ash) in the world.^[36] However, the decreasing importance of the soda ash trade to ICI in favour of newer products such as paints and plastics, meant that in 1984 the Wallerscote site was closed, and thereafter mostly demolished. The laboratory where polythene was discovered was sold off and the building became home to a variety of businesses including a go-kart track and paintballing, and the Winnington Works were divested to the newly formed company, Brunner Mond, in 1991.

• Ardeer (in Stevenston, Ayrshire): ICI Nobel used the site to manufacture dynamite and other explosives and nitrocellulose-based products. For a time, the site also produced nylon and nitric acid. Nobel Enterprises was sold in 2002 to Inabata.^[37]

• Slough (in Berkshire): Headquarters of ICI Paints Division.^[38]

• Welwyn Garden City (in Hertfordshire): Headquarters of ICI Plastics Division until the early 1990s.^[39]

See also[link]

Companies portal

• Eley Brothers
• IMI plc
• Kynoch
• Pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Imperial Chemical Industries

• Official site
• Dulux
• National Starch and Chemical Company ICI subsidiary.
• Yahoo! profile
• Orica

v t e Original companies of FT 30 in the United Kingdom As of 1 July 1935. Associated Portland Cement Austin Motor Bass Bolsover Colliery Callenders Cables & Construction Coats Courtaulds Distillers Dorman Long Dunlop Rubber Electrical & Musical Industries Fine Spinners and Doublers General Electric Company Guest Keen & Nettlefolds Harrods Hawker Siddeley Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Tobacco International Tea Co. Stores London Brick Murex Patons and Baldwins Pinchin Johnson & Associates Rolls-Royce Tate & Lyle Turner & Newall United Steel Companies Vickers-Armstrongs Watney Combe & Reid F. W. Woolworth & Co

The Right Honourable The Lord Melchett PC, FRS
First Commissioner of Works
In office 10 December 1916 – 1 April 1921
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Lewis Vernon Harcourt
Succeeded by	The Earl of Crawford
Minister of Health
In office 1 April 1921 – 19 October 1922
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Christopher Addison
Succeeded by	Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen
Personal details
Born	23 October 1868 (1868-10-23) Farnworth, Widnes, Lancashire, England
Died	27 December 1930 (1930-12-28) London
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Conservative
Spouse(s)	Violet Goetze (d. 1945)
Alma mater	St. John's College, Cambridge University of Edinburgh

Alfred Moritz Mond, 1st Baron Melchett PC, FRS (23 October 1868–27 December 1930), known as Sir Alfred Mond, Bt, between 1910 and 1928, was a British industrialist, financier and politician. In his later life he became an active Zionist.

Early life and education[link]

Mond was born in Farnworth, Widnes, Lancashire, England, the younger son of Ludwig Mond, a chemist and industrialist of Jewish extraction who had emigrated from Germany, and his wife Frieda, née Löwenthal. He was educated at Cheltenham College and St. John's College, Cambridge,^[1] but failed his natural sciences tripos. He then studied law at Edinburgh University and was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1894.^[2]

Business career[link]

Following this he joined his father's business, Brunner Mond & Company as director, later becoming its managing director. He was also managing director of his father's other company the Mond Nickel Company. Other directorships included those of the International Nickel Corporation of Canada, the Westminster Bank and the Industrial Finance Investment Corporation. His major business achievement was in 1926 working to create the merger of four separate companies to form Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) one of the world's largest industrial corporations at the time.^[2] He became its first chairman.^[3]

Political career[link]

Mond was also involved in politics and sat as Liberal Member of Parliament for Chester from 1906 to 1910, for Swansea from 1910 to 1918 and for Swansea West from 1918 to 1923. He served in the coalition government of David Lloyd George as First Commissioner of Works from 1916 to 1921 and as Minister of Health (with a seat in the cabinet) from 1921 to 1922. He later switched party and represented Carmarthen from 1924 to 1928, initially as a Liberal. However, in 1926 Mond became a Conservative, after falling out with Lloyd George over the former Prime Minister's controversial plans to nationalise agricultural land.^[2][4]

Mond was created a Baronet, of Hartford Hill in Great Budworth in the County of Chester, in 1910, and was admitted to the Privy Council in 1913.^[2][5] In 1928 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Melchett, of Landford in the County of Southampton.^[2][6]

Benefactions, Zionism and honours[link]

Mond's father had bequeathed a collection of old master paintings to the National Gallery and Alfred provided housing for them in 1924. In 1929 he provided land in Chelsea for the Chelsea Health Society.^[2]

He first visited Palestine in 1921 with Chaim Weizmann and subsequently became an enthusiastic Zionist, contributing money to the Jewish Colonization Corporation for Palestine and writing for Zionist publications.^[2] He became President of the British Zionist Foundation and made financial contributions to Zionist causes. He was the first President of the Technion in 1925.^[7] Melchett founded the town of Tel Mond, now in Israel.^[8] Melchett also started building what is now one of the few private houses on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, now known as Villa Melchett.

Mond was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1928 and received a number of honorary degrees from Oxford, Paris and other universities.^[2]

Personal life[link]

The Iconoclast
Sir Alfred Mond: "I'm sorry to have to disturb Your Majesty, but, owing to the shortage of sites—"
George III: "Shortage of sights, indeed!"
(It is understood that a number of London statues, including that of George III in Cockspur Street, are to be removed by the Office of Works to make room for new ones.)
Cartoon from Punch magazine, 18 August 1920.

In 1894 Mond married Violet Goetze and they had one son, Henry Ludwig, and three daughters. Mond died in his London home in 1930, and his son succeeded in the barony.^[2]

Publications[link]

• Industry and Politics (1927)
• Imperial Economic Unity (1930)

Literary references[link]

Mond is mentioned in T. S. Eliot's 1920 poem A Cooking Egg.^[9]

He is also widely considered to be the inspiration behind Mustapha Mond, one of the ten world controllers in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.^[10]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Alfred Mond
• Portraits of Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett at the National Portrait Gallery, London

v t e Secretaries of State for Health of the United Kingdom Ministers of Health Christopher Addison · Alfred Mond · Arthur Griffith-Boscawen · Neville Chamberlain · William Joynson-Hicks · John Wheatley · Neville Chamberlain · Arthur Greenwood · Neville Chamberlain · Edward Hilton Young · Kingsley Wood · Walter Elliot · Malcolm MacDonald · Ernest Brown · Henry Willink · Aneurin Bevan · Hilary Marquand · Harry Crookshank · Iain Macleod · Robin Turton · Dennis Vosper · Derek Walker-Smith · Enoch Powell · Anthony Barber · Kenneth Robinson Secretaries of State for Social Services Richard Crossman · Sir Keith Joseph · Barbara Castle · David Ennals · Patrick Jenkin · Norman Fowler · John Moore Secretaries of State for Health Kenneth Clarke · William Waldegrave · Virginia Bottomley · Stephen Dorrell · Frank Dobson · Alan Milburn · John Reid · Patricia Hewitt · Alan Johnson · Andy Burnham · Andrew Lansley

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2007)

Jackie Lee (born Jacqueline Norah Flood, 29 May 1936, Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish popular music singer, who has recorded under various names.

Career[link]

Lee was a musical child prodigy. She won a scholarship and trained as a soprano for four years. Upon finishing her studies she became a vocalist with the top showbands playing prestigious Irish venues.

Lee experienced similar success when she moved to London and joined the popular dance band; The Squadronaires. In 1955 her first solo record was released, followed by a further two the next year.

From 1959 to 1964 Lee was a member of The Raindrops, a successful quartet who made countless appearances on British TV and variety shows, had a BBC Radio show and released a string of records, the majority of which had Lee as lead vocalist. The Raindrops also included Les Vandyke and Vince Hill in its line-up.

In 1962 she entered the UK heats of the Eurovision Song Contest as a solo act with "There's No-one in the Whole Wide World" and performed it at the British national finals for BBC TV. This number was later covered and performed by The Beatles in concerts during this period.

Lee decided to become a solo artist in 1965 and it is this period, 1965–1967, which defines her cult status through the 'Beat' records she released.

One of these recordings reached the NME chart however; "Just Like a Man". The B-side; "I Gotta Be With You", became a 'Northern Soul' classic. Lee recorded this single under the name of Emma Rede for EMI Records.

Lee also had an alternative career as a respected session singer, through her groups The Jackie Lee Singers and Tears of Joy. She provided the backing vocals for such global number ones as "Green Green Grass of Home" by Tom Jones and "Release Me" by Englebert Humperdink.

She demonstrated her unique vocal range, ability and versatility on such diverse recordings as "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix; and much of the James Last catalogue at the time. At one point Elton John was employed by Lee, as a member of her session singers.

In 1968 - as 'Jacky' - she had a UK Top Ten hit with "White Horses", the theme from a Children's TV programme. In 2003, her definitive version was voted the best TV theme tune of all time by 'The Penguin Television Companion'. Her Jazz styled album of the same name was also released in 1968, which included contributions from Dudley Moore as pianist.

By 1970, 'Jacky' reverted to 'Jackie Lee' and had another hit record; "Rupert" from the TV show based on the famous cartoon character, Rupert Bear (erroneously referred to as "Rupert the Bear" in the song's lyrics). This recording also had a place in the "Best TV themes of all time" list from 'The Penguin Television Companion' at Number 7, thus consolidating Lee's reputation. Albums by her were also released in 1971 and 1972 on Pye Records.

In 1973, Jackie supplied the lead vocal for yet another children's series, "Inigo Pipkin"

It was shortly after this that she prematurely retired due to vocal complications and throat trouble, yet she remains a respected vocalist who has high collectability status, and, it has been said, that her work has "firmly embedded itself in the subconscious of a generation."^[1]

2007 saw the release of a CD entitled End Of A Rainbow - A Pye Anthology comprising all of Lee's later recordings, made for Pye Records between 1969 and 1973. A second CD, 'The Town I Live In', issued in 2009, collects all of her 1966/1967 recordings for EMI. Two further CD anthologies are planned.

Single discography[link]

• "White Horses" - UK #10 - 1968 - (Philips BF 1647)
• "Rupert" - UK #14 - 1971 - (Pye 7N 450003)

^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• jackielee.org - The World of Jackie Lee (official site)
• Jackie Lee discography at Discogs

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2010)

Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons in 2006
Background information
Born	(1948-12-20) 20 December 1948 (age 63) London, England
Genres	Rock, progressive rock
Occupations	Audio engineer, composer, musician, record producer, director
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Legacy, Arista, Fox, Mercury, Frontiers[citation needed]
Associated acts	The Alan Parsons Project
Website	Alan Parsons Music

Alan Parsons (born 20 December 1948^[1]) is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several significant albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor. Parsons' own group, The Alan Parsons Project, as well as his subsequent solo recordings, have also been successful commercially.

Career[link]

In October 1967, at age 18, Parsons went to work as an assistant engineer at Abbey Road Studios, where he earned his first credit on the LP Abbey Road. He became a regular there, engineering such projects as Paul McCartney's Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, five albums by The Hollies, and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, for which he received his first Grammy Award nomination. He was known for doing more than what would normally be considered the scope of a recording engineer’s duties.^{[citation needed]}He considered himself to be a recording director, likening his contribution to recordings to what Stanley Kubrick contributed to film.^{[citation needed]} This is apparent in his work with Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat", where Parsons added the saxophone part and transformed the original folk concept into the jazz-influenced ballad that put Al Stewart onto the charts.^{[citation needed]} It is also heard in Parsons' influence on the Hollies' "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and "The Air That I Breathe", sharp departures from their popular 1960s hits "Stay", "Just One Look", "Stop! Stop! Stop!" or "Bus Stop".^{[citation needed]} Parsons was also known to have swapped shifts during the engineering of The Dark Side of the Moon so he could work entirely on the project.^{[citation needed]}

Parsons also produced three albums by Pilot, a Scottish pop rock band consisting of Ian Bairnson on guitar, Stuart Tosh on drums, and David Paton on lead vocals, guitars,bass and William (Billy) Lyall, on piano and keys. Their hits included "January" and "Magic".

He also mixed the debut album by the American band Ambrosia and produced their second album Somewhere I've Never Travelled. Alan was nominated for grammys for both of these albums. ^[2]

In 1975, he declined Pink Floyd's invitation to come back and work on the follow-up for "Dark Side," Wish You Were Here, and instead initiated The Alan Parsons Project with producer and songwriter (and occasional singer) Eric Woolfson, whom he had met at Abbey Road. The Project consisted of a revolving group of studio musicians and vocalists, most notably the members of Pilot and (on the first album) the members of Ambrosia. Unlike most rock groups, The Alan Parsons Project never performed live during its heyday, although it did release several music videos. Its only live performance during its original incarnation was in 1990, with Woolfson present but behind the scenes. After releasing ten albums, the last in 1987, the Project terminated in 1990 after Parsons and Woolfson split, with the Project's intended 11th album released that year as a Woolfson solo album. Parsons continued to release work in his own name and in collaboration with other musicians. Parsons and his band now regularly tour many parts of the world.

Although an accomplished vocalist, keyboardist, bassist, guitarist and flautist, Parsons only sang infrequent and incidental parts on his albums. While his keyboard playing was very audible on the Alan Parsons Project albums, very few recordings feature his flute. During the late 1990s, Parsons' career travelled an interesting full circle. Having started out in the music industry at the Abbey Road Studios in London as an assistant engineer in the late 1960s, he briefly returned to run the studio in its entirety. He reportedly managed to combine this role with the demands of a hectic performing and recording schedule. Parsons also continued with his selective production work for other bands.

Of all his collaborations, guitarist Ian Bairnson worked with Parsons the longest, including Parsons' post-Woolfson albums, Try Anything Once, On Air, and The Time Machine.

As well as receiving gold and platinum awards from many nations, Parsons has received ten Grammy Award nominations for engineering and production. In 2007 he received a nomination for Best Surround Sound Album for A Valid Path.

In May 2005, Parsons appeared at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California, to mix front-of-house sound for Southern California-based Pink Floyd tribute band Which One’s Pink? and their performance of The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety.^[3]

Since 2003 he has toured under a revised name, The Alan Parsons Live Project (with Woolfson’s permission). The globe-trotting band features guitarist Godfrey Townsend, drummer Steve Murphy, keyboardist Manny Focarazzo, and bass guitarist John Montagna. The 2004–2005 shows offered vocalist P. J. Olsson's track "More Lost Without You", while the later 2006 shows presented The Crystal Method-featured "We Play the Game" and opened with "Return to Tunguska" along with successes spanning the Project years.

Beginning in 2001 and extending for four years, Parsons conceived and led a Beatles tribute show called A Walk Down Abbey Road featuring a group of headlining performers such as Todd Rundgren, Ann Wilson of Heart, John Entwistle of The Who, and Jack Bruce of Cream. The show structure included a first set where all musicians assembled to perform each others' hits, and a second set featuring all Beatles songs.

In 2010, Alan Parsons released his single "All Our Yesterdays" through Authentik Artists.^[4] Parsons also launched a DVD educational series in 2010 titled The Art and Science of Sound Recording ("ASSR") on music production and the complete audio recording process. The single "All Our Yesterdays" was written and recorded during the making of ASSR. The series, narrated by Billy Bob Thornton,^[5] gives detailed tutorials on virtually every aspect of the sound recording process. Individual sections of the series are also being released in batches and are available to stream or download at www.artandscienceofsound.com.^[5]

During 2010, several media reports,^[6][7] one of which included a quote from a representative of Parsons,^[8] alleged that the song "Need You Now" by country music group Lady Antebellum possessed the melody and arrangement of "Eye in the Sky."

In 2011 it was announced that Parsons was creating and producing a new group called the Subclones. Parsons said: "I feel that the public deserves some genuinely innovative music and It's been a long time since I've heard some that truly excites me – it made me want to get back into the studio and do another 'Dark Side'." Parsons jokingly refers to one of the biggest-selling and most popular albums in history.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Parsons was born in London. He resides in Santa Barbara, California with his wife and her two daughters, as well as numerous pets.^[1]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• with The Alan Parsons Project:
  • Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976)
  • I Robot (1977)
  • Pyramid (1978)
  • Eve (1979)
  • The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980)
  • Eye in the Sky (1982)
  • Ammonia Avenue (1984)
  • Vulture Culture (1985)
  • Stereotomy (1985)
  • Gaudi (1987)
• as a solo artist:
  • Try Anything Once (1993)
  • On Air (1996)
  • The Time Machine (1999)
  • A Valid Path (2004)

Full discography[link]

[edit] Billboard Top 40 hit singles (U.S.)

No. 37 – "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether" (1976)

No. 36 – "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" (1977)

No. 27 – "Damned if I Do" (1979)

No. 16 – "Games People Play" (1980)

No. 15 – "Time" (1981)

No. 3 – "Eye in the Sky" (1982)

No. 15 – "Don't Answer Me" (1984)

Canadian singles[link]

No. 62 – "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether" (1976)

No. 22 – "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" (1977)

No. 16 – "Damned if I Do" (1980)

No. 9 – "Games People Play" (1981)

No. 30 – "Time" (1981)

No. 1 – "Eye in the Sky" (1982)

No. 43 – "You Don't Believe" (1983)

No. 20 – "Don't Answer Me" (1984)

No. 89 – "Let's Talk About Me" (1985)

Awards and nominations[link]

Nominations[link]

• 1973 – Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1976 – Ambrosia – Somewhere I've Never Travelled – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1976 – The Alan Parsons Project – Tales of Mystery and Imagination – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1978 – The Alan Parsons Project – Pyramid – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1979 – Ice Castles – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
• 1979 – The Alan Parsons Project – Eve – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1981 – The Alan Parsons Project – The Turn of a Friendly Card – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1982 – The Alan Parsons Project – Eye in the Sky – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1986 – The Alan Parsons Project – "Where's The Walrus?" – Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
• 2007 – Alan Parsons – A Valid Path – Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album

References[link]

• Official website of the Alan Parsons Project
• The Avenue, The Official Alan Parsons Fan Club

External links[link]

• Alan Parsons at Allmusic
• Alan Parsons Music Official Site
• Alan Parsons Project Official Site
• Alan Parsons in the Internet Movie Data Base
• Crawdaddy! "Parsons Knows: The Tale of Alan Parsons and Edgar Allan Poe"
• The Subclones, Parsons new group